Artsdata Crawler

The Artsdata Crawler is an automated agent operated by the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) to support the Artsdata project. Its primary function is to ingest structured data from arts and culture websites to populate a centralized knowledge graph, which facilitates the sharing and discovery of cultural events across Canada. By aggregating this information, the bot helps smaller arts organizations increase their digital visibility through standardized linked data formats.

The bot crawls websites to extract event-related metadata, such as dates, locations, and descriptions, which are then converted into Schema.org-compliant linked data. This process allows the Artsdata platform to act as a hub for cultural information, ensuring that event details remain consistent and accessible across various search platforms and cultural portals. Operators can verify the bot's activity by checking for requests originating from the Artsdata infrastructure, which typically targets pages containing structured event data.